Compaq presario v3000 HDD partitions problems

Hifriend of mine gave me a laptop to fix. The system was running win 7 but suddenly the other 3 partitions disappear and left with 1 partition, he uses the pc for few days then when he restart the system the message appears "bootmgr is missing press ctrl+alt+del to restart the system" so he decided to format the partition then he gave it to me. I try to install win 7 but win 7 setup see only one partition then i click the drive and click next and i got this error "windows installation encountered an unexpected error. Verify that the installation sources are accessible, and restart the installation. error code: 0xc0000005"

then i try to install win xp sp3, now i see all the partitions (all 4 partitions) but when i select a partition to install xp, it format fine but when it comes to copying files the system restart with no errors. I try to create new partition and install win xp then it pass the copying process fine but in 37 minutes left system restart with no errors.

I decide to back up some of his data by using linux live cd. Linux live cd see all partitions fine and i back up the data fine.I suspect the hdd is bad, what do u think is wrong?

error code: 0xc0000005can be caused by many things, but if you were installing Windows 7 FROM SCRATCH, apparently, you probably can only get that error if the computer has a ram problem, or, possibly, if the hard drive is failing.

"..suddenly the other 3 partitions disappear and left with 1 partition.."..the message appears "bootmgr is missing..""...but in 37 minutes left system restart with no errors."

All of those things can be caused by either problem.....

A ram problem ?

If the laptop user has NOT changed which ram is installed in the computer before he started to have problems.....

A common thing that can happen with ram, even ram that worked fine previously, is the ram has, or has developed, a poor connection in it's slot(s). This usually happens a long time after the ram was installed, but it can happen with new ram, or after moving the computer case from one place to another, and I've had even new modules that needed to have their contacts cleaned.

For a laptop, or netbook, you must remove both its main battery and AC adapter before you do that.

For a brand name computer, see the Owner's or User's manual if you need to - how to remove or replace the ram is usually in that - it may already be in your installed programs. If you can't get into Windows, it may be on a disk that came with the computer, or you can go online and look at it or download it - it's in the downloads for your specific model. ......

AFTER you have done that...test the ram with a ram diagnostics program.E.g. If you want to try a memory diagnostic utility that takes a lot less time to run a full pass than memtest86 does, this one is pretty good - Microsoft's Windows Memory Diagnostic:http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag...It can be toggled (press T) to do a standard or a more comprehensive set of tests - use the default 6 test one first - if it passes one pass of that, use the latter one. A few of the tests in the latter set are intentionally slower.If you don't have a floppy drive, see the Quick Start Information at that Microsoft link for how to make a bootable CD of the Windows Memory Diagnostic (you need Windiag.iso - you don't necessarily need to use the program they mention to add it to the CD)..........

The hard drive is failing ?

"if you are doing a quick format try, doing a full format"

Using the default full format in Setup is slower, but it is very good at finding previously un-detected bad sectors and excluding their location from being used by Windows.

However, there should NO bad sectors visible to the format program, because all modern IDE hard drives have automatic routines that detect bad sectors on the fly and replace them with spare good sectors from a small reserved pool of spare good sectors. When the format program or Windows otherwise is able to "see" bad sectors, that usually indicates the pool of spare good sectors has been used up because the hard drive is failing. .....

If you don't have a floppy drive, you can get a CD image diagnostic utility from most hard drive manufacturer's web sites, but obviously you would need to make a burned CD, preferably a CD-R for best compatibilty, on another computer if you need to.

If the hard drive itself tests okay, any data problems found can be fixed, one way or another..............

"I try to create new partition and install win xp then it pass the copying process fine but in 37 minutes left system restart with no errors."

If you booted from the XP CD, Setup finished loading the files for the entire first stage, you saw "The Computer will Restart in 15 seconds" or similar, then Setup booted the computer successfuly, Setup started the second stage, the time remaining stalled at 3x minutes remaining for a while, then the computer black screened, and Setup started the second stage again, in an endless loop -then you have a hardware problem or a hardware conflict problem that Setup can't get past.

If the ram and the hard drive tests fine, and if you run Setup again and have the same looping problem in the second stage of Setup..........

- unplug anything that's plugged in externally, that is not essential for running Setup, then try running Setup again...........

If that doesn't help, something inside the laptop either has a poor connection or it's damaged. Has the laptop user dropped the laptop, or spilled any liquid on it, or exposed it to any liquid e.g. rain since the laptop last worked properly?Whether it was running at the time or not doesn't matter. The laptop's ATX mboard is always powered in some places as long as the main battery is installed. Has the laptop been exposed toa power surge or spike or a power failure eventor was there a lightning strike on the power gridwhile the AC adapter was plugged in ???

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